This article is largely excerpted from a post published by our partner, Fledge at his bloghere。

After hundreds upon hundreds of applications reviewed by The Land Accelerator and Fledge, there are a series of common patterns that lead to rejections, no doubt frustrating the applicants, and similarly frustrating the screeners.

1. Team, or lack thereof

这number one criteria我们寻找的是一支强大的团队。如果您甚至无法说服一个朋友称自己为团队的成员，那么您不太可能说服一个单独的加速器，您就是合适的团队。一个人独自成立公司的人太多了。在加速器中，没有人能反弹大量的想法，也无法分裂和征服所有会议，研究等。

申请之前，至少要找到志愿者来帮助您。尝试当地大学。参加企业家活动。寻求在线企业家社区。在您申请加速器之前，请找到某人加入您的行列，即使只是作为志愿者。

2.好主意

A startup will consume all available time. That fact doesn’t change whether there are two, three, or more co-founders. Or one founder and a team of 10. Given this fact, why are you trying to start something so small? It’s fine to start small, but in the limited space of the application, explain how you intend to scale up.

如果您打算做一些影响力，请尽可能地产生影响。

3.很高兴有

太多的想法是“不错的”，但不需要“需要”。最简单的解释方法是类比：阿司匹林与维生素。如果您的头痛，牙痛或腰痛，并且没有阿司匹林（或同等），那么您会拖到药房/化学家来获得一些。如果您用完了维生素，则将其放在购物清单上，并最终开始购买一些。

Is your product an aspirin or a vitamin? Do customers know they have the problem you are solving, care about that problem and are they willing to pay to have it solved? If so, great. If not, you are selling vitamins.

从长远来看，维生素可以很棒，但是作为一家初创公司，除非您今天可以进行销售，否则您将没有长期的长期。因此……如果您的溶液是一种维生素，您如何调整它以增加使其类似于阿司匹林的紧迫性？

4. The marketplace of ideas, meaningful travel, artisan products and raising money for nonprofits

电影制片人喜欢制作有关制作电影的电影。作者喜欢拥有作家的角色。太多的初次企业家陷入了同一陷阱，建议为其他企业家建立市场/平台/社区。没有人提供证据，证明可能有可行的业务模型提供此类服务。

我们看过十几次的其他三个想法：

  1. 有意义的旅行公司。
  2. Companies working with artisans in the developing world, selling those products to American via an e-commerce website.
  3. 帮助为非营利组织筹集资金的营利性公司，获得了一小部分筹款活动。

Other ideas repeat on occasion, but these three are by far the most common. Like the marketplace, repetition makes these plans seem less viable, as the proof is that it is relatively easy to launch one of these companies, none of which have yet proven an ability to scale.

5. Belief, without proof

All entrepreneurs believe their startup will succeed. Most believe their idea to be the best in the world. We don’t dispute these beliefs. However, like any investor, Fledge requires more than belief. We require some proof that your idea could work. That there are customers with the problem you describe. That they care enough to pay for a solution. That there are enough of those people to make for a viable company.

We understand that there is often a Catch-22 (i.e. a chicken-or-egg dilemma) in creating that proof. That it may take some money to build the product to make a sale, and you don’t have the money.

不幸的是，您的问题是更大的一步，因为一些企业家要么有钱，要么找到一种无需任何钱就能创建该原型的方法。最后，作为一家初创公司，在您可以与竞争性研究中的竞争对手竞争竞争之前，您首先必须与所有其他寻求资金的初创公司竞争。

如果您认为，它将资助是一个普遍的期望，但不是现实世界的运作方式。

6. What DOES Work: A Mission-driven business model

Behind the accelerator program, the Land Accelerator partner, Fledge, is an impact investment fund. We focusfirst on impact, then on potential financial return. More specifically, we invest in mission-driven for-profit companies, where the mission is embedded within the product or service (e.g. Whole Foods, Zipcar, Patagonia, The Honest Company).

我们认为，这是有影响力的初创公司的最佳商业模式。因此，就未被接受的东西而言，我们怀疑X％的X％利润为慈善机构（Ben＆Jerry's）或Buy-One-Give-One（Tom's Shoes）。

我们的推理很简单。如果任务嵌入了产品中，那么公司只需要有一个目标，即可出售产品。每笔销售都可以完成任务。没有与任务有关的干扰。没有机会平衡财务和任务驱动的底线。随着时间的推移或收购时稀释任务的变化较少。

With the mission-embedded business model, the company can act like a fiscally-driven company, which makes life easier for fundraising, for recruiting and for growing the business.

7.第八最好的申请人

最后，资源有限的普遍问题。我们只能在任何一个会话中都可以与少数团队合作（尽管我们在2021年通过全诉网络研讨会会议提高了这个数字）。

最难发送的拒绝信是给排名“低于线”的团队，比上一封邀请信低一个，两个和三个空间。

这re seems to be more and more entrepreneurs each year, which only exacerbates this problem, despite more and more accelerators appearing each year as well. In addition, Fledge has seen a significant increase in quality of applicants rise session by session.

All of this makes it harder and harder for entrepreneurs to make it into the top 5%, leaving more than 95% of applicants in eighth place or below. And in the end, it doesn’t matter whether the ranking was 8th or 163rd, as they both receive the same frustrating rejection letter.

下一步

To increase your odds of receiving an invitation to Fledge, before you apply, grab a copy of这Next Step: Guiding you from idea to startup。